Daniel Dae Kim and How His THE GOOD DOCTOR Became a Surprise Hit

Our friend Daniel Dae Kim successfully made the transition from acting in front of the camera in hit shows like LOST and HAWAII 5-0 to becoming a creative force behind the camera as executive producer of ABC’s new hit THE GOOD DOCTOR–inspired by the Korean drama of the same name. The New York Times spoke to Daniel about the story behind how he brought the series to ABC:

Mr. Kim took notice of the original version of “The Good Doctor,” an award-winning 20-episode series in South Korea, not long after it started airing in 2013. He scooped up the rights for his new production company and got to work adapting it. Because he was a star of the CBS show “Hawaii Five-0” at the time, he developed it for his home network, which ordered up a script. After taking a look, however, CBS decided against commissioning a pilot.

That is usually the stage when all parties agree to leave a project behind, but Mr. Kim, who was born in South Korea and grew up in Bethlehem, Pa., bought back the rights from CBS. He felt that strongly about it.

He eventually teamed up with Sony’s television arm, which brought in Mr. (David) Shore, the creator of the successful Fox medical drama “House.” Mr. Shore’s version began to attract network interest — although not from CBS.

“CBS actually passed on it twice,” Mr. Kim said. “That was really unfortunate to me, because they were my home studio. I really wanted to bring something home to them.”

Earlier this year, along with his Asian-American co-star, Grace Park, Mr. Kim left “Hawaii Five-0” after he suggested that they had not been not offered salaries commensurate with those of their white co-stars.

“The path to equality is never easy,” Mr. Kim wrote in a Facebook post at the time.

In the end, CBS lost a prime time actor and ABC gained an executive producer who brought it an unexpected hit.